B9 Bonanza!

[Bexley]

Been a while...

Got back to messing with the printer. While I was able to print just fine at 30xy, I really wanted to get 50xy working, as there are many future projects where I will need the additional space.

I got some (much more expensive) black B9 resin, to help with calibration. Unfortunately, I had pretty much the same issues.  What I eventually determined was that since I had to lower the projector more than I'm supposed to in order to calibrate, the actual lamp power reaching the resin was reduced. In theory, I could compensate by various means, but nothing that wouldn't involve a lot of trial and error every time I wanted to switch from 30xy to 50xy. I contacted customer support (actually, they contacted me, after reading about my issues in the B9 forums) and it is likely there is something out of whack with the lens elements. I will be returning the projector and getting a replacement, which will hopefully solve my problems.

[finescalerr]

That is not the first problem you have had with that machine. I hope the manufacturer was a generous in helping with the other issues. -- Russ

[Bexley]

Yes and no. It is likely the source of all of my other issues. Even the not-so-flat build table might have still resulted in successful prints at 50xy if enough power was reaching the resin. Before I flattened it, I was able to print fine at 30xy; at 50xy, it I had problems both before and after flattening. It's more that there were a lot of potential diagnoses, which all had to either be resolved or eliminated as problem sources before starting to look at bigger picture things/more unlikely things. And certainly, had I not jumped in using a third party resin with unknown exposure settings, I might have gotten to this point much faster. Bad optics is not a common issue. And technically, this would be Vivitek's fault. But I suppose, if I were using the projector as intended, being a little out of focus along one edge probably wouldn't be a problem, even if I were able to actually notice that in a 10' wide projection.

Ultimately, it's my own usual bad luck. The B9 forums are full of people who own machines (and in some cases multiple machines) who have never had a problem. (I suppose they could all be plants, though...)

And, the cost of getting ~$100k machine quality from a $4k machine I assembled myself. I knew going in it wasn't a plug-and-play device.

[Bill Gill]

I've bee quietly keeping an eye on this thread. The model RR club at RPI has been discussing getting both a laser and a stereographic printer not only to help construct large numbers of models, but also to help recruit new student members.

Given their courses, most students have pretty heavy time restrictions so having potentially nifty tools that actuallyhave a lot of down time for whatever reasons is one of the reasons this is still in the discussion phase. (The other reason is the cost of tools like that).

[Bexley]

I think at this point, it comes down to how much you want to tinker. The printers with high enough resolution for small scale models are either very expensive, or have a heavy DIY element to them. There are lower cost models that are more reliable, but they currently lack the resolution. Even Dremel makes one now, and you can get it through Home Depot (online only) for $1000 USD, but unless you want to print larger components without detail for hand-detailing later (not a bad thing) it's probably going to disappoint.

[Bexley]

Hey, it's been a while.

It seems that my printer woes were based on operator error during assembly. The upside is, I am now printing again, and getting the best prints yet!

These are some custom bases for some figures I'll be casting in resin. (25mm in diameter.) They were printed at "medium" resolution, as a test. I will be reprinting them at higher res in the near future for molding. Unfortunately, the nice black resin doesn't photograph very well.




And this is a Zbrush sculpt I'm working on for a 1/16th figure. I printed it last night, but didn't have time to clean and inspect the print before work this morning. (I did check on it, though, and it appears to have printed fine.) This is way over detailed, as I was having fun monkeying around with the sculpting, knowing full well that most of it was too fine for even top-of-the-line printers. The stitching should print, though, and some of the larger dents and damage. The texture on the helmet and leather will likely not be noticeably unless I printed at 1/6th or so, maybe.

[finescalerr]

The disembodied head looks terrific. Do I understand correctly that the printer wasn't the problem -- you were? I thought the table wasn't level and there were some other issues. -- Russ

[Bexley]

Yes, it was (mostly) me. The table not being flat was a factor, which is why things improved once I lapped it. But the "shelf" that the resin vat sits on needs to be square to the back, and the two halves of the back need to be planar with each other. Somehow during assembly, these parts came out of alignment, so that the front of the machine was a bit further from the projector plane than the back. At the highest resolution, the build area is closer to the back of the machine, so I had no problems. But when I went up to the medium resolution, the build area expands. The parts toward the front of the machine were not getting as much exposure, and failing. Since each layer only gets a half second or so of exposure, it doesn't take much to cause the resin to not solidify completely. In the end, I bolted some angle iron across the back of the machine to keep it planar and rigid, so tightening the bolts to square the shelf couldn't pull things out of alignment.

[Bexley]

Printed the head last night. I hit it with a bit of primer so I could get a decent photo.

[Ray Dunakin]

Nice! It retained a surprising level of detail.

[Bexley]

Indeed. I got about what I was expecting. And once I put the head on the model, it was clearly a bit too small. I'm reprinting it now about 10% larger. Probably not enough to significantly impact the finer details, but it can't hurt them, either.

[Bexley]

[Allan G]

Wow! Very exciting. Looks great...Allan

[finescalerr]

Approximately how tall is the figure on the saddle? -- Russ

[lab-dad]

When I saw you were printing a 1/16 figure I got really excited!
Dont get me wrong - it looks amazing, just not one I could use.
The level of detail is really great- I have one from shapeways that looks good in white primer. I guess I need to paint it!

Keep up the great work!
Mj